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1 St James’ Park
Specifically the fact that it is in the centre of town. God botherer, BBC pundit and former Toon Star Gavin Peacock described it as being “up on the hill, in the centre of town – where the church should be.”
Gavin, you enjoy your church and I’ll worship at mine.
On match day, the whole city knows there is a game going on. That feels right. None of your out-of-town, flatpack, identikit, blando, modern grounds here.
2 The Ouseburn Square
There are various pubs that could have made this list but all the best ones are in stumbling distance of each other. It used to be a triangle, now it’s a square. The Free Trade wins for views and old style grubbiness, The Tyne for cosiness and friendliness, The Cluny for music and the arts and The Cumberland for outside drinking and ping pong played like you’ve never seen it before.
3. Tyneside Cinema
Our arthouse cinema has been on its holidays in the the ‘heed while its old home is done up. Excitingly it’s due to re-open in the Toon this Sunday. I’m not sure what to expect of the new look site but I think we’re still going to get velvet curtained loveliness. I just hope that fabulous street level coffee bar comes back too.
It was always one of the few places you could get a decent coffee without feeling like a corporate shmuck. Being surrounded by old Italian gadgeys reading foreign newspapers only added to the cosmopolitan feel.
Update: Tickets now on sale for first flurry of films in the new place. Not exactly arthouse but I just booked two seats in the classic circle for the Indiana Jones flick. Can’t wait.
4. Hall 2 Sage Gateshead
Believe the hype. I tend to dislike places that other people harp on about just because I am awkward bastard but the Sage is breathtaking. It genuinely is. Absolutely awe inspiring (see my pic above). But the best bit is not the cavernously beautiful hall one, it’s the intimate hall two. The best place to watch music in Tyneside. Nah forget that – I can’t believe there is a better place in any city anywhere.
5. High Level Bridge
I could have gone for the iconic Tyne Bridge, the flash new Millennium Bridge but for me it’s the High Level every time. Solid, sturdy, unflashy and it suited Michael Caine a treat.
6. Civic Centre Rabbits
I like to think of them as our version of Ninja Mutant Hero Turtles. Fearless Urban Geordie Rabbits. The first time you see them you’re so surprised. Then eveytime you pass after that you can’t help but search for them.
They’re nearly always there. Brave little feckers. (Not to be confused with the Toon’s vampire rabbit)
7. Heaton Park/Jesmond Dene
Stretching from the comparatively mean streets of Heaton to the leafy suburbs of Jesmond – an absolutely gorgeous strip of green that really does make you feel like you’re deep in the heart of the country. In my early twenties I can recall getting very drunk with mates and deciding it would be fun to sleep on the rocks by the waterfall. Twenty minutes later we got spooked. Three hours later we were back in Heaton after incredibly getting lost walking home.
Oh and don’t miss the Shoe Tree.
8. The Metro to the Coast
Sun is shining? Head to the coast – you can be there in 15 minutes. The Metro is our tube, the only difference being is it’s actually pleasant to ride.
Old jowly tosspot Harry Redknapp reportedly said he didn’t want to manage Newcastle because he liked being by the coast. Look at a map dickhead.
9. The Monument
Speakers corners, meeting place and busker venue all rolled into one. The statue itself is pretty cool too but its just the space that really makes it work. It’s loved by Goths and office workers alike. The Christmas market is just too tasty. I am still losing the weight.
10 Baltic Viewing Platform
The art isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I know there is always something there that I enjoy seeing. But the best bit is still the view over the river and its bridges. I could do without the nanny state glass screens but still – nice. Very nice.
Feel free to add to the list in the comment box. I am a bit short on restaurants – any ideas?
Update: Quite by chance two other Toon bloggers have posted their favourite things. Look here and here for tales of Tyne Gods and post boxes.
When I lived in Vietnam it was always a source of severe irritation that I never read one international news report about the country that didn’t mention the war.
Even the ones that tried to highlight the new ‘nam would ultimately have to compare it with its war torn past.
Now back in Newcastle the same can be said. In today’s Guardian Stuart Jeffries pens a piece that is obviously supposed to reflect the new Tyneside. In his standfirst he talks of the area as a a “heartland of culture and science”. So far so good.
Scan through the article and we get to culture in the 15th paragraph and science in the 21st. In the meantime we get:
Shearer’s sports bar, Kevin Keegan, collapse of Northern Rock, ham and pease pudding stotties and the over consumption of alcohol.
In addition he’s done that awful thing of writing Geordie quote in, well, Geordie. No one ever quoted the Queen as saying “mey hesband and ey. You’re only ever written up in your own accent if you’re from North of London.
Funny, as I write this, a colleague has come in with a written version of the piece. It’s a nice spread – slightly ruined by the fact that, although the article references the wider Tyneside, it is about Newcastle – but the cover shot is…Gateshead.
Maybe the designers didn’t know the difference, but I guess we should be pleased that it’s not Newcastle Under Lyme. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Another point to dwell on:
In the above piece it states:
Not many Toon faithful are prepared to bare their wounds or rehearse their fears before a journalist from London. The representatives of the Toon Army have not responded to my emailed overtures, while Biffa (aka Mike Bolam), who runs the nufc.com fan site and is the author of an excellent book, The Newcastle United Miscellany, declines to be interviewed. He writes: “I’m afraid that I’m still quietly fuming about the recent written antics of the enemy within the Grauniad.”
It’s fair to say that the Guardian is not Newcastle’s favourite paper. On Tuesday their Fiver mailout started with an (honestly) 70 line pointedly nasty pisstake. The scornful abuse is daily – and the suggestion is that with at least two of its staffers, Louise Taylor and Barry Glendenning, being committed Sunderland fans there is a genuine bias.
I also receive their Northerner mailer. It always feels a little sneery and aloof – like way too much of the Guardian’s content when it deals with the North East. You get the impression it’s written by Londoners who think that the best way to please is to write as many patronising “northern” stories as possible. You find yourself looking for the whippet breeding pieces and the fashion spot on flat caps.
As a blogger I can only applaud their website and commitment to all things web 2.0. But the attitude of their writers to the North East stinks. If the heartland of the Daily Mail is the Home Counties, the Guardian’s, whatever they might claim about Northern public servants, is London media land luvviedom and they don’t seem to like us much.
Since returning home I’ve been once more amazed at the quite obvious hatred the Southern-based media has for the North – and, in particular, the North East.
If it has always been bad, you might expect it would slowly improve as we pushed back the boundaries of ignorance, but it is getting worse and I don’t know why.
Below is from www.nufc.com and refers to football but it also applies to so many other topics.
North and South divide? It’s just London, it’s media and its government I have an issue with. I, like most other Geordies I have spoken too, would quite honestly prefer to chuck our lot in with the Scots. Expect more rants.
Now that the transfer window has closed…
…we’re out of the FA Cup, have no more trips to the Emirates or Old Trafford, have got rid of one boss, brought in another and made various other appointments of a non-Gosforth nature, can we just say:
Enough patronising bollocks from every man and his dog masquerading as news or comment on events in this region, this city and this club – you simply haven’t got a f**king clue what you’re on about.
Try reporting the facts instead of what you or your London masters would like to hear.
Try getting past the KK “Messiah”, “Second Coming”, “impatient fans” – all cliches invented by the media, not the supporters.
Try seeing past brain dead Vox Pops or meaningless online polls as spurious evidence that the lies you pen have any basis in local opinion.
Try hiding the regional prejudice that would see you branded as racist, were it to be presented as news about other nationalities.
For a club that isn’t “big” (whatever that means), it doesn’t half get a lot of coverage….
To anyone still paying money for The Mirror, The Sun, The News of The World, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Mail, why not just read their continual anti-Toon tirades online instead of shelling out for the privilege of being insulted and/or patronised?
Exhibit A: The scandalous Sun and Mirror front pages this week with Keegan / £100m / Wise concoctions.
Exhibit B: The Mail’s allegedly funny Dennis Wise diary stumbles to day 3 here. Somebody is getting paid for writing that.
Exhibit C: Victoria Derbyshire, Nicky Campbell, Alan Green, Eamonn Holmes, Clem, Terry Butcher, Steve Claridge – you’re the shite, you’re the shite of Radio 5. Bigots all.
